1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a response technique, which uses a computer for selling, searching for, and inquiring about products and services suited to a user.
2. Background Information
Various interactive systems are conventionally available for selling, searching for, and inquiring about products and services using a computer. For example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-400675 recites an interactive system that can effectively exchange information between a computer user and a computer, while maintaining context. In further detail, in the abovementioned interactive system, a dialog having a context is conducted that considers contextual relationship, as with a dialog conducted between people. Consequently, the exchange between a user and the interactive system does not unfortunately end in one round trip. In addition, even if an exchange is repeated multiple times, those repetitions are mutually related, and not mutually independent.
In addition, with the abovementioned interactive system, a potential dialog pattern is dynamically created based on a topic net, wherein multiple topics are linked. This fundamentally differs from the method that prepares beforehand all dialog scenarios that can be executed by combining questions output by the interactive system with multiple choice responses to those questions. For a dialog based on such an interactive system to be effective, the topic net must include a sufficient number and range of topics registered in the dialog, and it must have sufficient dialog information for transitioning between topics.
Incidentally, to create a topic net, topics that will likely be registered in the dialog must be identified from various information sources, their interrelation must be analyzed, and messages to output for each topic must also be prepared. For example, let us consider the case of creating a topic net for an interactive system that sells a travel package. In this case, topics for various travel objectives and destinations must be collected from various information sources, such as geographical information, transportation facilities information, tourist site information, and event information, and those topics must be associated.
In so doing, the creation of a topic net can be said to be efficient compared with the preparation of a dialog scenario that hypothesizes all possible dialog flows, but it is problematic to create a topic net by manual means alone. In addition, even if one ventured to create a topic net manually, the dialog range covered by the topic net would tend to be insufficient.
In addition, if a specific topic is included in a topic net, then a dialog using that topic net becomes extremely effective. That is because the dialog is close to the user's perspective, and feels realistic. A conceivable source for collecting specific topics is the information in specific content written from a personal perspective, such as a travel journal or a product review. Presently, computers often handle such information. However, because that information is normally simply text data or image data, it is difficult to process that information, as is, with a computer.
However, many systems use databases in table format, principally relational databases. For example, much data is handled in table format, including product catalog information, store information, geographical information, tourist information, travel information, and information exchange bulletin board information. Furthermore, data in XML (extensible Markup Language) has become frequently used in recent years. XML formatted data is one type of tree formatted data, with each node of the tree having a “Content” and a “Type”. The “Type” is called a tag in XML. In data described by XML, the data itself includes a description of the data contents, and its structure is also flexible; consequently, the usage of XML is progressing principally for the purpose of distributing data. Actually, the data format in the XML format is defined in numerous fields, including electronic commerce, publishing, travel, and maps. Data that has been handled so far by relational databases is also being converted to XML for distribution purposes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for efficiently creating, with little effort, a topic net that can respond to a wide-ranging dialog.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of expanding the information collection sources for generating a topic net.